shell script question

What is the point of the below in a script? This snippage is in the
'stop' portion of an init script. I just dont see the point of the if
statement. It almost looks like it's just making sure $pid isn't empty.


------begin snippet------

pid=`/bin/ps -e | grep process_name | grep -v mon | grep -v grep | 
sed -e 's/^  *//' -e 's/ .*//' | head -1`
     if [ "X$pid" != "X" ]
     then
             /bin/kill $pid
             echo "**process_name** interface stopped"
     fi
------end snippet------

Thanks,
David

--
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."
--Darth Vader
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